I Blame the Stands
by JapaneseMiko
Summary: Hiro and Suguru have to stay overtime at work once again to make up for Shuichi ditching them. Hiro wages a war against a stubborn stand and confesses something unexpected in his little rant. Just what will Suguru think about our guitarist now?
1. Chapter 1

**I Blame the Stands**

"Shit! What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Hiro was pissed off. No, I take that back. He was way beyond pissed off.

"It means that we have a CD to put out and your lead singer didn't come to work today for some reason or another, so you two have to work overtime to compensate. Next time keep a firmer reign on your friend." K-san waved and smiled "Have fun boys!"

And with that he was gone. Well, that might be counted as a good thing, seeing as Hiro was ready to launch himself on the man and beat him into a bloody pulp and Suguru desperately didn't want to have to clean Hiro's brains up from off the floor, which he would probably have had to do seeing as K-san had proved in the past that he didn't mind using his many weapons against any of his stars if they became a little too unruly.

"I am so going to fucking kill Shuichi after I get out of here!" Hiro screamed to the world in general. "How dare he just ditch us for that damn Yuki again and hope we'd pick up the slack? I'm going to rip out his vocal chords and feed them to him!"

"If you kill him then we'll be out of a job." Suguru pointed out and hooked up one of his many precious keyboards. He was impartial to working this late, he did it on his own most times. The thing that really got to him was the fact the Shuichi had promised that he'd start spending more time at the studio and less time in that author's bed. It was frustrating.

"That might not be such a bad thing. At least we wouldn't have sudden insight into the life of a novelist I don't even really care for all that much. I know way too much about the guy for my liking." Hiro sighed and hooked his guitar up to an amp. "Not to mention the fact that our lives revolve around him. That cannot be a good thing for a guy whose ego is already the size of a rather large country."

"You've got that right. If Yuki has a bad day, then Shuichi has a bad day, then we don't get anything done**and** we have to listen to him crying." Suguru grimaced at the thought of having to go through another marathon cry session with Shuichi. "It's almost not worth it in the long run, but it has gotten us this far and asking Shuichi to break up with him would be like going outside and trying to turn the sky purple with green polka dots."

"Perhaps the sky thing would be a bit easier." Hiro agreed in his own little way.

Suguru nodded and dragged out sheet after sheet of musical arrangements. Hiro groaned at the sight. It was going to be a long night and he was already tired from the week before.

Yes, he'd had a long and hard week himself, though nobody bothered to ask him about it. Ayaka just wasn't working out, and he hated to admit it, even to himself, that it had nothing to do with her per se. It was more along the lines that women in any shape or form weren't as appealing to the young guitarist anymore. Needless to say, this sparked many an argument between him and his now ex-girlfriend. She just couldn't see why every guy she happened to like turned gay on her, and it didn't help that Hiro was just as confused about that as she was. The only thing that had made things turn out to be as big as they had been was her reluctance to drop the subject. Hiro was perfectly fine with chalking it up to some odd curse and moving on with his life, but she just had to go on and on about how she didn't deserve to have this happen to her twice and that he had better get his brain, and his dick, back on the right side of the fence.

Hiro wasn't going to stand for it anymore. As if it wasn't enough that she had been pulling the 'I want to be a virgin for my wedding' card on him the whole time they had been going out? No wonder he'd decided to quit in the middle of the games and switch teams. The whole thing had smacked of commitment and Hiro just wasn't ready for that level of commitment when he wasn't even sure if girls were really his cup of tea. There was nothing worse than waking up in the morning knowing that you had most definitely passed something good up for something you know wanted to strangle in her sleep.

And there was the quiet keyboardist. How did Hiro feel about him? There was no way that he could truthfully say that there was nothing there, but there was no way he could place a label on his feelings. Friendship? No. Lust? Perhaps. Love? Maybe.

There was just too much to think about right now and all this work wasn't helping any. What he really needed was some times alone to sort things out, not to be closed up in a small studio room with the object of his lust and or love. You don't just go from straight to gay in a week with no complaints.

"Hiro? Are you OK man?" Suguru was now waving his hand in front of the genius guitarist. "Hello in there."

"Huh? Wha–? Oh, Suguru. Something wrong?" Hiro was brought back to reality in a flash. Little did he know, but there was now a bit of a light blush staining his cheeks from being so close to the other teen. Well, that caught Suguru off-guard. How many times a day do you get to see the handsome guitarist blush, especially when you were the only other person in the room? It wasn't like he was blushing because of someone else. That was quite a lot for Suguru to handle at the moment so he stored it in his brain for future analyzation. Right now they had work to do and they couldn't do it if one of them trapezed off into La La Land.

"Um. The only problem we have is you blanking out on me over there." Suguru answered even though he was flustered. He knew there was no reason to be. Hiro was completely and totally straight. He was with Ayaka and Suguru himself should be off with some nice girl right now as well, but there was no one who measured up. No one who could replace what he knew in his heart to be true. No one could replace his Hiro.

He had always admired the red head. He had always seemed more down to earth than his pink haired friend. Suguru didn't know why, but he had always felt as though he had some sort of connection with Hiro in this world full of insane people. It was kind of hard being one of the only relatively sane people in this groups of hyperactive, weapon packing, freaking out, probably murderous group of emotionally unstable people. It was enough to drive the two insane, but they seemed to be the only people that were completely unaware of their surrounding. Yes, it was no secret that Hiro and Suguru were the two things that ultimately kept the band together and on the right track in the first place.

Hiro played a few chords on his guitar as if to lighten the mood. Suguru returned to his bank of equipment and tossed a folder full of music sheets in Hiro's direction. He deftly caught it and finished setting up one of those collapsible stands. The damn thing was stuck again and Hiro couldn't get it to unfold into it's normal, upright, ready to hold music form. He cursed under his breath and the war against the stand began.

Suguru watched on with mild amusement as Hiro began his battle against the worthy opponent. Those stupid stands had always given everyone in the music business trouble at least one time in their careers, and no matter how many stands you would try after you discovered one that wasn't going to work with you without major bloodshed, they all seemed to have the same mind set. It was almost as though they all staged a rebellion at the exact same time, and there was nothing the person that wanted to use them could do about it. He would just have to suck it up and fight for his right to use the metal contraption. To this day, the stands had put fifty people in the hospital, and had sent three to the ICU. And yet, the infernal companies that created these monstrosities refused to stop producing them.

"God damn you!" Hiro wasted no time in starting off his ranting at the stands. It was inevitable anyways. Whenever battling against a foe as stubborn as the cursed stands, you were sure to break off into a stream of cursing that would make a sailor cringe, which was normally followed by a rant on how the world had forsaken you by sending the accursed object into your hands. Why he didn't just prop the music up on a nearby chair or table was beyond me.

"Why must life be so cruel to me? All I ever wanted was to have a nice life somewhere, perhaps become a doctor like I was studying to be before joining this band. I just wanted to grow up to be an upstanding member of some community with a wife and a white picket fence. And then I just had to go and meet Shuichi." He didn't even seem to notice that he wasn't alone anymore. He wasn't just ranting at the stand anymore. It was more of a rant that he'd been waiting to release ever since that first fight with Ayaka. Suguru remained silent and waited for the man to finish, not even thinking about what was to be said next.

"He introduced me to this world of music and stages and fans and concerts and CDs. I wouldn't be having any of these problems if it weren't for him and his insane drive to be the best, and he doesn't even help most of the time! And what of this band? We might be riding some sort of high from good CD sales, but there's no way that we can make it with 2/3s of this fucking band as queers. What deranged fangirl would put life-sized posters of band members that she couldn't obtain on her wall? One gay guy was enough, but two would be over the limit. Rock bands might need a bit of controversy to get started, but that would be far too much."

Suguru was stunned. Hiro really**had** forgotten where he was and that he wasn't alone in the soundproof recording room. And he'd just admitted to being gay, not straight, queer, painting rainbows in the sky, he liked it up the ass, both ends of the stick, and a pouf! There probably more analogies, but Suguru wasn't about to get into them right now. And he didn't think that it helped that the guitarist was facing away from him. Suguru was currently opening his mouth to comfort the distraught guy and end the madness, when Hiro continued down his strange path and finished up the rant with some other things Suguru would never have expected to come out of the sex god's mouth.

"And to think that Ayaka was such a bitch about it. She was the one that said she wasn't going to do it until she was married. How she is ever going to manage to trap a guy like that is beyond me, but there is no way I'm asking her to marry me just for sex. What was I thinking even starting a relationship with her? I don't love her; I don't even like her! She was never right for me in the first place. Temporary insanity I guess. What a loser. Going on about how sad she was and how everyone she loved turned to other guys in the end. What else were we supposed to do? I know that I was scared right out of my stage boots when she brought up marriage and kids. What did she expect a nineteen year old on his way to the top to say when she asked me to quit the band? If I wouldn't do it for my own parents, what makes her think that I'd do it for her?"

The whole time he was ranting, Hiro was indeed still trying to set up the stand. He wasn't getting anywhere and Suguru was now frozen behind his instrument. There was going to be nothing to stop this madness for some time now. Sit back and enjoy the show. Hiro had finally gone and lost his mind. Not that I can blame him, I mean I would have thought the same thing in his position. Who wouldn't have?

"And now I have to contend with sexuality issues. Not like I haven't had those before either, but the urges have never been as bad as they are now. I think I need a vacation. I need to get away from him and have some time to myself to sort things out. Maybe when I come back I'll have thought up enough courage to tell him how I really feel, if there's anything more to tell, that is. I'm just as confused now as I was back then. I guess there's always been something. It's never really just been friendship between us, but I never knew I could feel so strongly. Just looking into his beautiful eyes in an experience that I wouldn't mind still experiencing years from now. There's just something about him that draws me to him, even in the midst of all this chaos. If only I could get up enough courage to tell him, damn it!"

Tears were now threatening to spill down our poor keyboarder's face. He'd known it from the beginning. There had been no hope for him to play a more important role in the man's life. His heart had obviously been taken a long time ago. His heart had belonged to a pair of gorgeous violet eyes ever since they had first met obviously. There was no room for Suguru in the relationship between Hiro and his best friend. Suguru could now see that the singer meant more to his love than anyone ever would. Who else could it be? He didn't stand a chance against Shuichi. There was now confirmation to what he had known for so long, and it hurt like a bitch. Even though he had known from the beginning that his feelings were not going to be returned. It hadn't stopped him from hoping, and now those hopes had been shattered.

But Hiro wasn't done ranting. He was still having problems with the stand and, as some of us know better than others, when you're engaged in a particularly nasty fight with one of the evil objects, you don't stop ranting until you have reached victory. Who knows how long that might last, but the drive to rant stays with you until you have rightfully defeated the evil and are happily practicing on your instrument of choice. I blame the stands.

"Damn it all to hell! I have to say something to him! I'm going insane just waiting and watching. I don't think he's going out with anyone right now, there's nothing stopping me, so why am I so afraid of rejection? Hell! I don't even know if he's gay or not! What if he hates me for it? There's no way that I would be able to live with him hating me, or things being strained between us. I would hate myself for forcing that type of existence on him. What if he chose to quit N-G for good to make sure that we didn't run into each other ever again? I wouldn't be able to go on without at least being able to see him. Talk to him, hear his beautiful voice. What is a man to do in this situation? My heart says go for it, but my head tells me all the things that could go wrong. Which should I believe?"

Suguru was now even more confused than before. He had just admitted to disliking Ayaka, to even go so far as to say that he had never even have had any amount of feelings for the girl. He had outed himself as being gay, albeit the fact that he thought he was talking to an empty room, he was that caught up in the moment and the unfairness of life. And now he had gone from loving Shuichi, which Suguru was now not as sure that he had ever been talking about the vocalist in the first place, to being afraid to confess his love to someone that worked within the walls of this very recording company. But now there was the question of who it was? Suguru knew that he should leave the poor guy to rant alone, but he was now curious about where this was going to end up. He involuntarily ducked down behind one of the larger amps and continued to listen, not even thinking about the fact that if he wasn't eavesdropping before, he was now.

"I give up. I'm going to tell him...**AS SOON AS I GET THIS FUCKING STAND SET UP**!" And as though realizing that he wasn't supposed to be alone in here, he looked around at the seemingly empty room. "And where'd he go anyways? He's supposed to stay here until I have bested this evil scrap of metal so I can confess my undying love to him. Hm. Maybe he went for coffee or something. Why am I speaking aloud? He could come in at any moment. Thank the gods for mental rants."

Hiro went back to muttering incoherently as he bent over the newest bane of his existence. The stand was so going down, but that's not the important thing anymore. The more important thing was now Suguru, who had almost fainted from surprise. Now there was no way he could get the wrong idea of who it was that Hiro loved, he also had to find a way to sneak out, get coffee, and come back without Hiro knowing that A) he had really been ranting and raving out loud and B) that Suguru now knew who it was that Hiro was madly in love with.

The answer was the one he had been hoping for from the beginning. There was only one person that met all the requirements now and it was him. He couldn't be more happy. The love of his life had done everything but propose to him and all he had to do was come back with coffee and help Hiro vanquish the stand once and for all. It was as though Christmas had come early for our shy, quiet keyboardist.

Operation get out of the room without being noticed had commenced. Suguru thanked the gods that the door leading out of the recording booth was on his side of the room. Hiro once again had his back turned. Suguru began the quick crawl to the door, but was thwarted in a way that no man should be thwarted while he is trying to escape from the room where his love had just finished confessing that he loved him, but you couldn't do anything about it because you were supposed to be out of said room. His knee knocked against one of the tables and a collapsible stand fell on him with enough noise to wake the dead, much less pull an angsty, hormonal teen out of his currently fired-up retrieve.

Hiro jumped and spun around, dropping his own stand. Now, he had placed his guitar off to the side in the middle of his little skirmish, which turned out to be a good thing for if it had been on his lap at the time, it would have befallen a very terrible death due to 1) being slammed up against the falling stand and 2) having the cord becoming irreparable from being ripped out of the amp at an odd angle. Now that the safety of the precious instrument has been established, we shall continue back to the main action. There's nothing really interesting about a guitar with no one playing it anyways.

Suguru immediately jumped to his feet to make it seem that he was just looking for a pencil fo something, that's when he remembered that his pencil was in plain view on the keyboard. Well, there was no getting out of this one. And his damn blush just wouldn't stop getting darker and darker. If Hiro didn't know that he'd heard every word the other teen had said, he did now. Damn his face and it's betraying powers.

They both stood there, in different stages of embarrassment while Hiro racked his brains for the exact point he had realized that he was talking aloud. He located it and groaned, then he set about tracking to the point where he had started to see what all the keyboardist had most likely heard as well. His face went completely white the second he found it. Had he really said all of that out loud? And Suguru had heard it? The boy probably thought he was an idiot and he was probably about to leave the room running like he'd never run before. Suguru was currently contemplating the many rock in the area and deciding on which one would be the best to hide under for the rest of his life. He wasn't quite sure if you could die of embarrassment, but this was taking it a little too close for comfort.

Hiro was the first to break the silence.

"So I guess you heard that rant, did you?" He began a heated staring contest with his shoes. Suguru was amazed. Here was the ever sexy and confident Hiro reduced to blushing like a schoolgirl and staring at his shoes as though they held the answers to the universe. And it was all because of him.

"Only the good parts." Suguru answered. If Hiro could be sexy and mysterious at times, than so could he. There was no law stating that Suguru couldn't confess first. It wasn't as though there was much doubt in his mind at who was the one that had stolen the guitarist's heart. He was tired of sitting in the shadows waiting for someone else to make the first move. Starting now, Suguru was going to be more in charge of his life, and less hiding in the background while it passed him by. No one was going to make any decisions for him ever again. Ok, so he would let Hiro choose a few things for him, but that was different. Everything was going to be different now.

"Oh." There was a huge, uncomfortable silence following the revelation. Hiro risked looking up at Suguru to find the boy smiling. "What the hell are you smiling about?"

"You." Suguru said and almost burst out laughing at Hiro's confused expression. "Its just amusing that you can be so caught up in what you were doing that you didn't even notice that I was standing there the whole time."

"The whole time?" If it was even possible, Hiro looked even paler than before. Suguru nodded and a little light clicked on in the red head's mind. Suguru had to have known who it was that he was talking about, but he hadn't left. He was still standing there, with that odd smile on his face. It was almost as though...he felt the same way and was just waiting for Hiro to make his move. To claim him as his own forever. Well, Hiro wasn't about to pass up an opportunity like that, now was he?

Before Suguru could even blink Hiro was pressed up against him, kissing him senseless. It all felt so good. It was as though this whole thing was so very right. There was no other way to describe it. Hiro had never felt anything like it before. Even when he had been with Ayaka, back in the days when he had thought that he'd loved her, he'd never felt the intense feelings that he was feeling now. He had been turned on before, but there was something more to this. There was something that said it was going to be worth it in the end. That he would enjoy waking up next to this beautiful young man every day for the rest of his life. Nothing like when he'd been with others, male and female alike. So this was love? Hiro could get used to this.

For Suguru, he was now enveloped in a world of feeling, touching, tasting, everything. Hiro was everything. The good, the bad, the in between, none of that mattered anymore to him. All that mattered was what was going on right now, and all of it was good, oh so very good. It wasn't his first kiss by a long shot, but it might as well have been. There was just so much emotion, so much love. Nothing mattered, nothing at all. There were no more problem in the world when Hiro held him like this. There was no high and mighty cousin to be better than. There was no pink haired ball of energy to disrupt recording session. There was no more gun breathing down his neck in case he didn't feel the need to get his work done on time. Hell, there was no more work as far as he was concerned at the moment. There was just them and this, this love.

They both pulled away to look into each other's eyes. There wasn't really much need for words after that point, but they just needed to hear it said one time.

"I love you, Hiro."

"I love you, Suguru."

"You know what this means now, right?"

"Enlighten me."

"There's going to be a lot of disappointed fangirls."

"That's for sure."

Any response Suguru might have wanted to make was swallowed by the next heart-wrenching kiss. Everything was finally right with the world once again.

* * *

**_AN: As you might have noticed from my biased position on the stand issue, I have had a fewe problems with them in the past. And yes, they have led to the insane desire to rant on and on about whatever happened to be bothering me at the time. I assure you, though, that my pointless rants were nothing like dear Hiro's, although I have had a stand fall on my head as I tried to creep into my band room after being a bit late. I got caught needless to say._**

**_Warnings: It might seem dumb to put these down here, but if you haven't already run off screaming from the above work of fiction, you shall see this and know that anyn fllames will be used in my own personaly fireplace come the cold time. If you have a problem with two boys being together, then why'd you even pick up Gravitation in the first place? I think the little brag about it being 'the greatest shounen-ai story to hit Japan from one of the best boy's love authors' in bold letters on the front cover might have told you something, but who knows._**

**_Challenge: I am hereby formally challenging every person that reads one of my Gravitation fics. I want you all to look upon what I have dubbed as 'the lost couples' and help me flood this site with them. I want for those fans of couplings such as this one, Ryuichi/Tatsuha, K/Sakano, Hiro/Shuichi, Ryuichi/Shuichi, K/Hiro, or any other strange coupling for this series to stand up and let our voices be heard. I fully support the Yuki/Shuichi pairing, but I am sick and tired of that (and Tohma/Yuki) being the only pairing I can find. So take up my challenge and spread the good word of the yaoi. The forgotten shall not be silenced!_**


	2. Chapter 2

**I Blame the Stands**

**A/N: There have been many requests for me to continue this fic into something a bit longer; something with a plot perhaps. I suppose that shouldn't be too hard for me to do. I hope that every single person that reviewed asking for a sequel or extra chapters is reading this. This is for you guys! I love ya'll!

* * *

**

About a week had passed since the scene between the two musical geniuses in the empty recording room that one night. Their relationship had progressed to something much more than either of them had ever expected, even in those few blissful hours after the initial confession. The only problem was that they were terrified of what others would think about this newest development.

True, Shuichi was gay, and very flamboyantly so if they did say so themselves, and they knew that no one in the building really had much of a problem with it, at least no one that they knew or cared about. There was just the fear that there would be something that would end up tearing them apart before they had ever really had a chance to discover everything that they could about each other.

Hiro was hesitant about telling anyone for the one of the most obvious reasons. He was afraid of the reaction from his parents and Ayaka. He knew that his brother wouldn't care one bit. Where else would Hiro have gotten his carefree outlook on life. His mother and father were a different story.

They hadn't liked it at all when he had announced that he wasn't going to heed to their wishes and become a doctor like they had expected him to do. Joining Bad Luck was one of the worse things he could have ever done in their eyes at the time and he hadn't thought that anything was going to change that, but now that Bad Luck was second only to Nittle Grasper (and that opinion varied depending on who you asked), his parents couldn't be happier. Hiro was now being invited to parties and family get-togethers about every other week or so. They had the famous son they had always wanted and they weren't about to throw that out so quickly. Hiro had been angry to discover this at first, but it didn't bother him at all now. He had gotten used to his parents attempting to steal some of the spotlight from him.

This was going to be the final nail in the coffin, though. If they didn't throw him out on his ass all at once that was. They could deal with a famous rock star for a son if they had to. They could definitely deal with an established doctor as a first or even second child. They could even stand having a little known actor as an offspring to some extent. They would not be able to accept or even stand being in the same room with any son that happened to have homosexual tendencies, especially if said son was fixated in the public's eye.

And what about Ayaka? Sure he had broken up with her, but it had been less than amicable. She had every right to milk this story for as much as it would give her, and he had a strong feeling that this was going to make that option seem like a very good one to the poor girl. He could see the headlines now: "Hot Romance Between Supposedly Straight Guitarist and Keyboardist. See page six for first-hand account from the woman Nakano Hiroshi scorned in order to sleep with younger member of the band Fujisaki Suguru." And then there would be the article. It would probably go on and on about the whole thing between Yuki and Shuichi and there would be much bashing of himself and Suguru, that was for sure. Bad Luck would never be able to show their faces in Japan for the rest of their lives, even Yuki would probably be run out of town, and that was something no one wanted to have to face.

Suguru was having his own reservations about coming out to anyone as well. He knew that Shuichi would never be able to keep his fat mouth shut, so that put the singer out of the picture. His parents probably wouldn't care as much as Hiro's would, but they would still put up some sort of fuss, at least for the first month or so, and then they'd be back to idolizing Tohma just like everybody else in his family. And then there was the producer himself.

Tohma was not going to take to this newest development lightly. It was bad enough when Shuichi had come out to being gay with Yuki, but this would be taking things a step too far. Suguru, if no one else, knew that Tohma was only putting up with Shuichi because it made Yuki happy and Tohma lived to make his brother-in-law happy. The producer had all but told him outright that if anyone in his family were to come out as a homosexual that he would personally make sure that they would never find any sort of work ever again, and Tohma could do that. Suguru didn't know for sure, but he had a strong feeling that getting hit by an oncoming car would hurt quite a bit.

So they had decided to be very discrete about it. This had posed a few problems in itself. Neither wanted to be separated now that they had found each other, and there were really no excuses for Hiro and Suguru to be constantly over at each other's houses. That was the first problem to be tackled and they thought that they had a really good game plan for it. It was all to start today...

"HIRO!" Shuichi's voice filled the studio and the occupants winced at the volume. "I haven't SEEN you for FIVE days! WHY?"

Hiro chuckled as he tried to pry the childish singer off him. "I've been busy and you know it. My landlord's been getting on my case lately about where I store my trashcans of all things. I'd move, but I like the rate I'm paying now. I was spending most of the week in the complaints department trying to get heard. I called you fours days ago to let you know."

"Oh yeah..." Shuichi shrugged and hurried over to where Suguru was slumped over in his seat with his head in his arms. "SUGURU! And here I was thinking that I was the lazy one."

Suguru groaned. "Shuichi. Would you mind keeping it down a bit? I didn't get much sleep last night." This was actually pretty true. He **hadn't** gotten much sleep, but it wasn't for the reason that he was about to give. Wink, wink.

"What happened, Suguru?" Shuichi asked concerned. Suguru lifted his head and gave a weak smile. Hiro moved away from the door as K came skipping in only to reiterate the exact same question Shuichi asked, only not as nice.

"Gee Suguru. You look like your keyboards got ran over by some punk kid and now you're sad about not being able to work." Suguru sent a weak glare is his direction and turned back to Shuichi.

"My aunt and uncle have moved into our house because theirs flooded in the last typhoon. I've been sleeping on the couch for the past two weeks and it's not the best place to manage to catch a good night's sleep. I offered to move out, but I don't have enough to pay for an apartment all by myself and my parents reuse to pay for everything for me." Suguru shrugged. "They should be gone soon though and then I'll be back and better than ever."

"That sounds just terrible. Why don't you have enough money? I would think that with everything N-G has been paying you, that you should have enough for ten apartments." Tohma had just entered the room in his silently freaky way so that no one had even known he was there. Suguru's face lit up in an instant blush.

"You know that Mom and Dad won't let me touch the bulk of any of those funds until I turn twenty-one." He growled. Hiro fought down the urge to hit something, or someone.

"I have an idea!" K chirped. Suguru banged his head down on the table and kept it there. Hiro continued tuning his guitar just like he had been doing the whole time. "Hiro said that he has a problem with his landlord and that he's only staying because of the rate, and Suguru says that he doesn't have enough money to get an apartment by himself, so..."

"THEY CAN SHARE THE APARTMENT AND SHARE THE RENT!" Shuichi yelled out at the top of his lungs, proud that he had been able to figure out where K's sentence had been headed. Everyone present was forced to cover their ears and was left with an unpleasant ringing noise once he'd finished. A few random people in the hallway ran away thinking that Shuichi had finally lost his mind and that the whole building was about to explode or something equally horrible.

It wouldn't be the first time after all.

Hiro blinked for minute and then gave K and odd look. "How did you know that I was having trouble with my landlord? You weren't even in the room at the time."

"Ah my dear Hiro-kun." K grinned manically "Don't you know by now? I know everything and anything there is to know about anyone under my charge."

"So you bugged us." Hiro stated.

"Shhh." K put a finger to his own lips as a sign to stop talking. "No one has to know." The American then burst into happy laughter and clapped the guitarist on the back. "Just kidding, Hiroshi. I would never do something like that!"

But there was something in the manager's eyes that made Hiro think that K was lying. He reminded himself to sweep his house for bugs the second he got back. Not that it would really matter anyways. The only thing that he could do now was to hope and pray that the man wouldn't give away their secret, but there was something that told him that K wasn't like that.

Suguru just sat here watching the whole exchange warily. He had seen something pass between the two, he just couldn't tell exactly what it had been. He supposed that he could always ask Hiro later. Right now he had bigger fish to fry.

Tohma stood there on the fringes thinking. He knew that something was up; he just didn't know exactly what it was. He did know that he was going to get to the bottom of it before the day was out or his name wasn't Seguchi Tohma, which, as far as he knew, it was. They couldn't hide anything from him and his awesome hat.

Besides that, Tohma knew pretty much nothing for the first time in his life. The hat can't do everything you know!

"It's decided! May the house-hunting begin!" Shuichi was so excited that he was able to procure newspapers from out of thin air in order to not waste a single moment that could be spent looking for an apartment for his two best friends... Which sounded odd when he thought about it for more than a minute, but he shrugged it off as a conincidence and continued on his happy way.

"Where did those newspapers come from?" Suguru was almost afraid to ask, but his curiosity got the better of him. Damn that human curiosity. It just ended up getting him in a world of trouble every time it popped up.

"Um..." Shuichi was cut off by K's loud laughter.

"Don't you know that you're not supposed to ask where something came from in a comedy such as this? That woud defeat the humorous purpose!" A few blank stares and one Jedi Mind Trick later and everyone forgot everything from the moment Suguru opened his mouth to ask the question to right about... now.

That means you, too.

Anyways... The newspapers were scattered about the room and Shuichi was sprawled out on the floor with a highlighter looking in the personals section while Suguru and Hiro were doing what they were paid to do, writing and composing music. K was laughing at something or another while waving his weapon around for some reason. Tohma had silently slipped out while no one was paying attention to him and was now in his office making some phone calls.

Everything was working according to plan. No, better than the plan. In the plan, they were supposed to actually do some work where finding an apartment was concerned. Shuichi was taking care of that for them, so they were actually doing twice the work without really doing anything that required much effort. I mean how hard is it to make yourself play an instrument that you loved enough to make a career out of it?

Not that hard, trust me.

And this was about the time that Sakano had finished running around the building doing different things and came to see how Bad Luck was doing. He nearly had a heart attack when he found Shuichi practically swimming in newspaper parts on the floor, but was revived by the sight of Hiro and Suguru doing what they were supposed to do. Then he had a heart attack anyways because K 'accidentally' pointed his loaded gun in the producer's direction. The perimedics magically appeared, treated him, and then disappeared in the space of one second. No one even knew that they were there. Wow... Those perimedics are good...

But the skills of the perimedics are beside the point. The point was that someone was about to get yelled at and I don't think it's going to be the two main characters in this story.

"Shuichi!" Sakano yelled at the top of his lungs. If there had actually been people in the recording rooms next to them, they would have been disturbed and probably have lost their train of thought, but since we know that no one practices on their floor except Nittle Grasper every once and a while, we can rest easy knowing that all your music will be getting out on time. "Why aren't you working?"

Now this has to be the stupidest question ever posed by the producer. It's obvious what Shuichi is doing, so why would he bother with asking when he had to know that his lead singer was doing something with newspapers. Jeeze.

"House hunting." Was Shuichi's sing-songy answer. Sakano just stood there staring at the pink haired idiot for a full minute before he seemed to come out of his shock long enough to ask another stupid question.

"Why on Earth would you want to move?"

The entire room burst out laughing. Hiro and Suguru were having to use each other as means to remain standing. K was bracing himself against a nearby table. Shuichi was busy rolling around in the newspapers, not even bothering to try not to rip them into tiny pieces. They would be all right in the next panel anyway.

Once everyone had settled down, and Sakano had tested the air for evidence of a natural gas leak, K decided that it would be a good idea to let the producer in on the whole Hiro moving in with Suguru thing. It wasn't like Sakano had the musicians bugged or anything, that was K's forte... I mean... No one would ever bug anyone's home/apartment/car/clothing/instruments... Of course not...

So now Sakano was conspiring in a corner with K working up ways to spin this whole issue for the optimal media coverage. Shuchi was making some calls on his cell phone. Hiro and Suguru were practically comatose while still pretending to play their instruments. Tohma was still calling people, but there was really no reason to mention that. He's not revelavent to anything that's going to be happening for the rest of this chapter. I just thought that all the Tohma fans out there would like to know.

Well, since this scene is slowly fizzling out and I can't really figure out how to make things move in the direction I want them to go... I'll put a nice little line and have the time be referred to as though it had actually taken place. If I find later on that there might have been something that could have happened in this missing time frame, I'll be sure to place a well-timed flashback into motion. Until then, just assume that nothing important happened and you should be fine.

* * *

It was about five hours after the incident in the studio. For some reason, Shuichi had been able to locate a decent two-bedroom apartment with a nice price, Hiro and Suguru had been able to sign a lease and arrange an entire song at the same time, and move in before anyone at the studio hadknown that they were missing. Of course, the worries about the new song debuting on time were immense, but K was confident that some sort of mythical fairy would descend upon their unfinished work and complete it like usual, so he gave everyone the rest of the day off, with threats of death if they were late to work the next day. Ah the target practice...

So now we rejoined our little dynamic duo in order to see if they were feeling any regrets about pulling off what was fast becoming one of the largest schemes that rock music had ever encountered. Don't ask why it was the largest, it just was, mainly for plot purposes than anything. It also helps my ego to think that I created the largest scandal in rock history. Good ego...

But that's not the point... The point is... Well, I forgot the point... But I know I had one.

_Anyways... _Suguru and Hiro were sprawled out on various pieces of furniture in their new apartment congradulating themselves on tricking so many people, four people is a lot when you think about it! Really!

Whatever...

So they were talking about it when the phone rang again. Both musicians shot up to get and then promtly looked at each other and started laughing. They were really going to have to get used to this living together thing. Hiro picked up the Caller I.D. and pointed at his coworker/friend/boyfriend/lover/thingy... "It's for you."

"Who is it?" Suguru asked obviously confused. Number one: How did Hiro recognize the number as someone that had anything to do with the keyboardist? Number two: Who would be calling for him in the first place? It wasn't like anyone had called for him back when he was living with his parents. He'd only reached for the phone out of habit in the first place. It was usually his job to answer the device and take down any messages for his parents. Number three: Well, there was no number three, Suguru just didn't like even numbers for some reason.

Bet you didn't know that, did you?

Suguru's odd avoidance of all things even aside, He couldn't come up with the answer as to who would be calling him in the middle of the afternoon. What did those people do when he was living with his parents? Call in the middle of the night? I would have thought that right after work would be a most opportune time to call someone.

"Shut up, you crazy author."

Fine, Hiro. HEY! You're not supposed to be able to hear me, or even know I'm here! This isn't the way it's supposed to be!

"I just know things."

Whatever...

So Hiro handed Suguru the phone and the younger teen took it, wincing as he was obviously getting yelled at. He shot an apologetic look at his partner... whatever you want to call him... and hurried into the fake bedroom that neither of them would be using unless someone came over.

Happy, Mr. I Don't Like Listening to the Author Narrate?

"Not really... You didn't have to make him run out of the room."

Nyah! That's what you get for discovering that I exsist. Go comfort your love before I make Ryuichi rape you or something.

"I hate you."

Love you, too...

* * *

**_Yeah I know. It's not all that good, is it? I was half-asleep when I wrote it and was going more for the comedy angle, and I was feeling awfully satiric that day. Next chapter will be more in-depth and touch on the true plot of this thing... If I can figure out what that even is... Kidding! I do have a plot, I just wanted to goof around in this chapter and kind of set the stage I suppose you might say._**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hello again! I'm back with another chapter of this thing. Apparently you people enjoyed the last chapter, which kind of surprised me, but whatever. **

**Anyways, there were some concerned with the Ryuichi comment in the last chapter. I would never have Ryuichi rape anyone other than Tatsuha in one of my fics, though I have read several very good ones with him being with someone else, my personal preference remains Ryu/Tat. But what Hiro doesn't know won't hurt him... Tee hee.**

**As for this chapter, there's going to be a small amount of angst. You'll see what I mean. I enjoy writing humorous fics, but sometimes you just gotta be serious. I would like to apologize to those of you who expected this chapter to be as happy as my other ones. Hang tight, it's not going to be sad forever, it just kind of fits the plot.**

**_Disclaimer: I don't think I put this is the other chapters, but I might have. Better safe than sorry, huh? So I do not own anything to do with Gravitation. I wish I did, though. Do you know how rich I would be? I wouldn't have to bootleg FFVII: Advent Children if I were that rich! Though it was well worth it..._**

* * *

Sooooooo... The last time I checked Suguru had run out of the living room with the cordless phone. I do think that it probably would have been impossible to run as far as he did with a corded phone, so for all intents and purposes they have a cordless. Why is this signifigant? It isn't... Or maybe it is... Bum bum bum... 

Hiro was getting worried. His band mate had been in there a long time and was showing no sign of coming back out any time soon.

So he decided to take matters into his own hands and run after him, but quickly found that he had beenlocked out. Apparently there was something in the conversation that Suguru wanted no one to hear, hence forcing him to lock the door. So now Hiro was sulking around the doorway waiting for it to open so he could ask the all-important question: What the hell is going on here? Of course, I could tell him that right here and now and end his suffering, but why would I ever want to do that?

"I still hate you."

I'm sure you do.

There were soft mutterings and mumblings coming from underneath the door. How would I know what was coming from underneath the door you might ask... Well, Hiro had knelt down by the edge of the door in an attempt to hear what was being said. It wasn't working. I guess they picked the aparment with the really thick doors.

And besides, I'm the author/narrator and I'm supposed to know what's going on.

There was a long pause in which Hiro was sure that Suguru had hung up the phone, but the keyboardist's voice filtered through once more, this time a little more clear due to the fact that his volume had risen, probably in anger.

"No!... Not like that... How could... make... I hate... too... Oh please! Don't treat... child... Bye!"

Okay, so it wasn't entirely clear, but there was still something to go on now. There was about five seconds of silence that Hiro was pretty sure was Suguru turning off the phone and then there was a loud crash. The phone had just been thrown exceptionally hard against the wall. It wasn't broken, though. Phones are strangely hard to break.

Silence now permeated the apartment. Hiro was debating on whether or not to knock on the door or just pick the damn lock and get it over with. He was going to get into that room no matter what, and we all know what Hiro's like when he really wants to do something.

But let's not focus on Hiro for once...

* * *

_**Backtrack... Backtrack... Backtrack...**_

The phone had been handed to the keyboardist and Suguru had said the mandatory 'Hello' when his mother began yelling at him for something or another. He wasn't quite sure on the subject of her rant at the time seeing as she was hysterical and he couldn't understand a thing she was saying. But he caught the end of one her sentences and realized that he was about to be in a lot of trouble. Maybe he had celebrated getting off scott free a little too early.

He'd then sent that apologetic look at Hiro and taken off into the empty bedroom that was supposed to be his. He'd just sat there for a minute while wating for his mother to calm down long enough for him to get a better grasp of what he was being yelled at for. Finally there was silence on the other end of the line.

"Now, please keep calm, Mother. I can't understand a thing you're saying." Suguru said softly into the phone. He wasn't too sure on how thick the walls and doors were in this new apartment, so he didn't want to risk anyone overhearing. This was his problem and he was going to deal with it.

"I was asking you if it was true that you were shacking up with that awful guitarist that plays in your band. Your cousin just called your father and told him, and of course I overheard. I can't believe that you would do something like this to us! Do you know what sort of shame we'll have to live with if this little rumor is true? Poor Tohma sounded as though he was about to have a stress heart attack when I spoke to him. He's got your best intrests in mind, my dear, but you just can't see that. Are you trying to get back at us for something we did? Were we really so bad to try and raise you right, away from the music business? Didn't we tell you that things were never going to work out in that respect? And your dearest cousin, he tried so hard to make you happy! Are you going to betray all of us just like that? How insensitive! Can't you even think of someone other than yourself for once?" Suguru winced at the tone of her voice and his grip tightened on the phone.

"Mother." He managed to speak calmly instead of yelling and throwing things and running over to his home in order to kill her. "It's not true at all. Hiro's just my friend. He was in a bit of trouble with his landlord and he needed to get a different place, and I've been sleeping on the sofa for the past two weeks, so I just assumed that it would be best for both of us if we just got a better apartment, but still ended up paying fairly low rates. Besides, this place is closer to the studio and I'm paying for it myself. I know I should have asked you, but I knew you'd say no and I wanted the time to show you that it was a really good idea after all."

There. That should pacify her for the time being.

"I will not tolerate this! Think of the rumors that could be spread!"

Or not...

"There won't be any rumors. There's no reason for there to be. This has got nothing to do with anything romantic. We're just two guys that want a decent rate on an apartment close to our work. No one's going to twist this into something that it's not." Well, that much was true. If anyone did twist the seemingly friendly relationship between the two men, they wouldn't be wrong. "You just worry too much, and I thank you for it. I'll talk to Tohma in the morning and we'll work something out, okay?"

"Not okay." Suguru could tell that this was fast going places that he would be unable to manuver his way easily out of. "I'm going to make a deal with you. Since your father seems not to care in the slightest, I'm sure he won't mind if we make this little deal behind his back. If you come home today, and not tomorrow or in a week, I mean today, then I'll allow you to continue to play for that band of yours. I won't like it, but I'll allow it."

Now that pissed Suguru off. It wans't like he was a minor any longer, he had turned eighteen just last month. His mother had no right to order him home.

"You can't control me anymore, Mother. I'd like to think that you of all people would be the one to understand that I had to get out of that house and fend for myself. I'm not going anywhere and there isn't anything you can do about. And you'd better believe that I will be talking to Tohma in the morning. You two have the wrong opinion of the thing." Suguru said as calmly as he could, but his mother just had to go another step further in an attempt to humilliate him enough to make him return home.

"You will return home right now! I will not tell you again! I will not tolerate knowing that my only child is busy living in sin when he could be making himself a good life here, under our watchful eyes! I will hate you forever if you continue on in this way. You will not start sleeping with a man as long as I am alive to stop you!"

"No! It most certainly is not like that! How could I ever make something like this up? You need to be a little more trusting. And I hate you, too if you're going to be like that! Oh please! Don't treat me like I'm still a child! I'm not your little baby doll any longer! Bye!" And that's when he turned off the phone and hurled it uncerimoniously at the wall.

He was beginning to feel the silence that his rage had left behind. He knew that he probably shouldn't have yelled at her, but it had just pissed him off so much that she couldn't trust his judgement or take his word for its face value just because Tohma had said something different. Why couldn't anyone think that Tohma was the wrong one? That the producer was the one that had heard wrong? Why was eveything his fault?

There were some odd noises coming from the other side of the door. Suguru grinned in momentary amusement. Hiro was attempting to pick the lock. It was oddly sweet that something like that could mean so much to him, when, to most people, picking locks was something utterly annoying and completely unwanted. He, on the other hand, half wished that his boyfriend would succeed. He didn't want to be the one to have to put on a brave face. It would be much easier if Hiro just made his way in and there was no time to put up a plastic front to hid his emotions. He didn't want to hide things for Hiro. He didn't want to hide things from anyone, but sometimes life isn't the way you want it. He would be satisfied with just sharing his thoughts with one person.

If only he could figure out how he wanted to begin that particular conversation.

There was a small click and the door swung open slowly. It seemed as though Hiro hadn't fully believed he knew how to properly pick a lock and was surprised that it had worked. The truth was that he was half expecting Suguru to begin yelling at him, probably throw something at him, and he wanted the door to be the thing in between his head and whatever it was that was likely to come flying across the room in his direction.

Nothing happened.

So after about thirty seconds of using the door as a shield, Hiro took the risk of sticking his head into the room and locked eyes with the keyboardist. Suguru smiled weakly and Hiro was at his side in an instant.

"What happened?"

Ah, now that was the question, wasn't it? Hiro was stumped as to what could have been so terrible that it had forced the younger teen into this half-empty room in order for no one to hear. Not to mention the fact that it looked as though Suguru was about to burst out into tears. Well, maybe not so much burst as leak. Suguru doesn't cry.

At least of his own free will.

"Mother. Tohma seems to think that there might be a second reason as to why we moved so suddenly." Then Suguru lost his rigid control. "How the hell does he **know **every little thing about whatever everyone else happens to be doing? It's physically impossible! No one can know that much about something that only two people know about in the first place!"

"Maybe he doesn't know anything." Hiro paused as Suguru gave him a look that plainly told him that he thought the guitarist had gone insane. "No, listen. Hear me out."

"Everyone always just assumes that what he says is right, and most times it is, but maybe he doesn't really know anything until the person in question reacts to something. He just pushes their buttons until he hits upon the truth and they can't seem to hide it from him any longer. So if we don't react in anything other than polite outrage..."

"He has no reason to think that his assumption is right." Suguru finished off the statement, his hope suddenly returning. Hiro was one of the smartest people he knew. Maybe there was something to his little theory. "It's worth a try."

"Yes, but in order for it to succeed, we're going to have to let someone else in on the secret. Formally, at least. I have a sneaking suspiscion that he already knows." Hiro looked out the window as though he were deep in thought.

"So that's why you were looking at K-san like that this morning." Hiro nodded. "I don't think he would betray any of his artists, Hiro, but if it'll make you feel comfortable, then we can go talk to him in the morning, before I talk to Seguchi-san that is."

"If anyone can convince him it would be you, Suguru. Just don't let him get the upper hand. He's not as scary as he tries to seem. We're going to make it through this. I love you."

"I know. I love you, too."

* * *

**_A/N: I know, I know. Everyone cry now. No, I'm kidding. I don't think this chapter is all that good. It's mainly plot, ick. I like making plot...writing it out is a different story. I'd much rather write random bits of hilarity, so...guess what? That's what the next chapter's going to be focused on! YAY! Random K moments involving a bag of chips...No, seriously...There'sa bag of chips involved...Don't ask..._**


	4. Chapter 4

**_A/N: I am so sorry for any inconvience on my part. I meant to upload this sooner, but my computer crashed and I had to start again from scratch. I solemnly swear that I will never be this late ever again (at least until my computer throws another hissy fit)._****_

* * *

_**

Claude 'K' Winchester was sitting alone in his office writing a letter to a producer that was supposed to pull some strings to get Bad Luck on his show. If all else failed, the enclosed bullet would probably add a little extra incentive.

Although the fact that K had become known among the producing circle as someone who would quickly, and cheerfully, use enclosed bullet, or one remotely like it, the letter was a good nudge in the right direction as well. There's no better wake-up call than an insane American attempting to assasinate you.

Well, a nice cup of Folgers coffee would probably be safer...

But since when had K ever allowed someone to take the safe route? Besides, one could still managed to burn their tounge on the coffee. That wouldn't feel nice either. You'd be alive, but in horrible mouth pain!

So here K was, thinking about what to write to the lovely producer that was hindering his star's progress. It had to be something completely simple, so that such a feeble minded person could understand it. Yes, feeble minded. Anyone that wouldn't jump at the chance to have Bad Luck on their show had to have some sort of brain damage in K's opinion. But the letter also had to say that there would be dire consequences should the man still refuse.

Suddenly K began writing.

It took him less than five seconds to compose the note he'd been pondering over for the past hour and a half, but he was sure it would get his point across in such a way that there would be no room for confusion or refusal.

The note read:

**'BOOM!'**

K smiled to himself as he licked the envelope shut and placed it in the pile of letters to be sent to various places all over the world. What? K had pen pals, too, ya know. Quite a lot of them by the looks of things.

Anyways...

He was just about to continue on to whatever he did during the time that he wasn't supposed to be hanging out with any musicians when there came a knock upon his door... Oh! I used proper English! Cool...

But that's not the point.

The point is that there was someone knocking on his door when there really shouldn't be.

Little known fact, no one goes to K. K goes to them. So, therefore, there was no reason for anyone to wish to visit him in his broomcloset... I mean... office... Yes, office... It was against all protocol for someone to even entertain the idea of entering K's sacred workplace. Except the janitors... But that's a different story.

So obviously, K was confused.

He contemplated throwing a hand grenade at the door, but remembered that Tohma had told him that if he ever damaged the building in any major way ever again, he would be fired. Apparently, the producer hadn't really liked having one of his buildings demolished like he'd claimed to the public.

He also considered pretending to be gone. That way there was no reason for whoever it was on the other side of the door to intrude in his sacred workplace. Then K could pull the video stream for his hallway to find out who it had been to interrupt him so rudely, neglecting to mention the fact that he wasn't doing anything at the time. It would also give him the upper hand to meet on the other person's ground uninvited.

In the end, he chose to remain silent. Whoever it was couldn't, and wouldn't, stay out there forever.

Would he?

Well, as it turned out, the person on the other side of the door wasn't going to stand there forever. In fact, he was merely being polite by knocking first rather than immediately kicking open the door like he'd wanted to from the beginning. Sometimes he wished he could just do things his way all the time, it would be much more interesting that way.

A loud crash rang out and the random workers on that floor paid it no mind. When you've been working in the same building as K for as long as they had, you became used to odd noises and gunfire. The door to K's office swung open, banging against the wall before swinging to an abrupt stop.

K was stunned for the first time in his life.

"Mister K, I presume?"

The blond blinked three times exactly. He slowly rose to his feet and slowly reached his hand in the direction of his shoulder holster. "Yes, I am Mr. K.Was there something you wanted?"

The man adjusted his black tie and pushed his dark sunglasses further up on the bridge of his nose. K tensed as the other man's hand went for his pocket. "There is a matter of great importance that I would like to discuss with you. That is, if you don't mind."

"I should be the one asking you questions. You just broke into my office when it was very clear that I didn't want any visitors. I could have you arrested." He pulled out his favorite Magnum. "Or I could just shoot you and no one would be the wiser."

"I would greatly appreciate it if you would place your weapon back where it belongs. There we go... Nice and easy... Hands where I can see them." K smiled grimly as he complied, choosing to see where this little game was going before springing into action. It wasn't like hehappened to haveweapons of mass destruction hidden anywhere else on his person... Nooooo...

That was sarcasm by the way...

The mysterious man reached back into his pocket. "Now, I am going to show you something and I want you to tell me the truth, okay? Good." He pulled out a picture and tossed it carelssly on the desk. "Do you recognize this bag of potato chips?"

What the hell...?

"I've eaten thousands of potato chips in my lifetime. How do you expect me to recognize a specific bag?" K asked, which was a really good question considering. Seriously, what kind of idiot would burst into your office just to show you a picture of a bag of potato chips that you may or may not have eaten or touched. All those bags were identicle! "Better yet, why the hell does it matter?"

Ah, a good question K-san. A very good question.

"That is none of your business. Suffice to say that you have something we want." Mysterious Matrix Man said calmly as he adjusted his sunglasses.

"Let me guess... You want it back, whatever it is." The man nodded. "Can you prove I have this... er... Bag of chips that you want so badly?"

The man pulled out his gun and trained it on the American. "Don't move. We know you've got it, so don't even bother to lie."

This is fast going way past the bizzare stage into the totally fucking crazy relm. But K froze anyways. It wouldn't do to get his head blown off over something as assinine as a bag of chips that he'd probably already thrown away."

"That's good... Very good." The man smirked. "Where's your precious bag of potato chips now, Mr. K? Where are they now?"

And, as quickly as he had come, the man was gone, leaving a very confused manager and an even more confused narrator... That was weird...

And then, for the second time that day...

Someone knocked on the door.

"God damn it, K! Don't shoot us!"


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: I'm glad to see that everyone enjoyed the insanity of that last chapter. You enjoyed it so much, in fact, that I feel guilty about not giving credit where credit is due. So . . . Now for the moment at least some of you have been waiting for! Where on God's green Earth did I think of something so completely random and hilarious? Well...**_

_**Will my dearest little sister and her darling friend Andreea please step forward to take the praise that is due!**_

_**It was during a highly competitive game of Mario Kart (And by highly competitive I mean that I had all my balloons and they were falling into the lava every time I glanced at their screens) when my sister was laughing and jumping around claiming that I was simply the best... And since I'd been muttering about the awesomeness of my handsome Mr. K for the past half an hour (I was wondering how I could fit him into my story), Andreea figured that I thought I was all the and a bag of chips... Something, something... I wasn't paying attention... Crash, boom, bang, I knocked Jessie back into the lava... When all of a sudden I hear Andreea call out "Where's your precious bag of potato chips now, Mr. K!" And I was unceremoniously shot in the head with a red shell...**_

_**She thought I was referring to myself as Mr. K (Something I do from time to time . . . Hey! Don't look at me like that! I like to cosplay!) And in her little mistake this lovely joke was born, and now you get to hear about it... You lucky dogs...**_

* * *

Our two favorite musicians were now seated in identical chairs in front of K's spotless desk, the letters and any other incriminating evidence having been hidden by the manager in the confusion that had sprung up from K pointing a very shiny gun at the heads of said musicians.

In truth, they should probably be used to it, but logic is really the furthest from anyone's mind when a gun is being pointed at their heads. It doesn't really matter how many times it happens.

K steepled his fingers and rested his wrists on the edge of the desk. His blue gaze seemed to pierce right into his charge's minds and it didn't take him more than a minute to head right to the root of the problem with the accuracy and speed that only one who is proficient with eavesdropping technologies can master . . . Not that K had ever eavesdropped on anyone . . . He was just that cool.

"So you need my help conning the world into thinking that you're just two guys that wanted a place closer to work?" K smirked. "Am I anywhere close?"

Hiro rolled his eyes. "You know you are, but you didn't hear everything."

K's eyes widened in surprise. He was K! He knew all and he saw all when it came to his stars! Okay, he didn't see all, even K had his morals, but he did hear all and he was quite certain that he had heard everything there was to hear when it came to the young relationship blooming between the two boys. But . . . He still hadn't installed certain protective devices in their new apartment . . . There was the tiniest of possibilities that an important conversation could have taken place . . .

But that was running off the basis of K using electronic bugs to listen in on others, something that was in no way true whatsoever . . . Yup. Not true _at _all.

Did everyone get the sarcasm? Good. Moving on then.

"Alright. I'll hear you out." K leaned back in his chair and motioned that one of them could continue the explanation. After a moment's pause, it was silently decided that Hiro was going to take on the task. It had been his idea after all. Suguru was just along for the ride at this point.

"We think Tohma knows."

"Well, shit." K threw his hands up in the air in a dramatic gesture. Little known fact, K had taken theater arts in high school. What? It should have been obvious. "It looks like we should be focusing on damage control rather than keeping a secret."

"But we also think that he doesn't know anything at all."

A long silence . . . Then . . . "What the hell are you blathering on about? If Tohma knows, then he knows, no two ways about it. It's a wonder that he hasn't alerted the media as it is, or, at the very least, your parents." He raised his eyebrows as Suguru muttered 'Been there, done that.' under his breath. "And besides, he's the most respected public figure in the business. Anything he says is absolute truth, even if it's not."

"Haven't you ever wondered exactly how he knows all that he knows? How could he possibly figure out things that only one or two people have even discussed? How can he figure out pranks that are about to be played in order to fully twist them in his favor? No one is that perfect." Hiro lowered his voice. Better not to fall victim to unfavorable eavesdropping, though most right thinking people tended to avoid K's office on a workday, or really any day for that matter. No one likes being caught up in the crossfire. "He's faking it."

"How so?" K was perplexed. Completely and utterly perplexed by this new dilemma. He couldn't get past the, 'He knows, but he doesn't know,' thing. Honestly, if someone knows something, then how are they supposed to unknow the knowledge they already knew in the first place? Great, now I'm using words that aren't even real, thank you imaginary characters!

"He notices when a person is feeling uncomfortable around a subject and then he pushes buttons until the person's reactions tell him everything he needs to know." Hiro shrugged. "I'm thinking that he figured the sudden move had more than innocent friendship behind it."

"We think all we have to do is convince everyone around us that things are kosher while not giving away anything to Tohma." Suguru shrugged. "It can't be all that hard, can it?"

K raised an eyebrow. "Um... The two of you have somehow managed to migrate into each other's laps in the past two minutes of conversation subconsciously. Hands where I can see 'em, boys. Don't want any unfortunate 'accidents' in here."

And sure enough, K was correct. During the conversation, the two teens had been inching their chairs closer together, so much so, that Suguru was now pretty much in Hiro's lap. Not to mention the fact that Hiro's hand _were _conspicuously absent from anywhere K could see. Noticing this, they both sprang apart, each one scooting five feet in the other direction.

"Did you ever think that perhaps this might be a bit harder than you originally had planned?" K asked watching with thinly veiled amusement as Hiro slipped off the edge of his chair and became entangled in a particularly nasty looking mop. "I think he's going to notice if you keep falling into mop stands every time you catch yourself touching him."

"Why _are _there dirty mops in your office?" Suguru asked. He reached out tentatively in order to poke a oil covered dish rag that was hanging over the top of K's computer monitor.

"I like to clean things."

Since neither one of the musicians were likely to believe that, a staring contest was begun. Well, it was begun, but it didn't last very long. Would you really want to engage in a staring contest with the well-oiled barrel of a gun? At least they knew why the cloth was in there.

"Okay then. We'll just be going to work now." Suguru stood and helped Hiro out of his little wrestling match with the evil mop. It looked as though most inanimate objects seemed to have some sort of vendetta against the poor man.

"Is Shuichi here yet?" K asked. It wasn't that he didn't already know the answer, it was more of a polite sort of thing. You were supposed to ask about the friends of your friends, or, in his case, you were supposed to make sure that the lead singer of your band wasn't off in the middle of nowhere not doing any work.

Then again, when _was _the last time Shuichi had done any work?

Whenever that was is irrelevant to the story. Forget I asked. Suffice to say that it was a long, long time ago, most likely in a galaxy far, far away. Back to the matter at hand.

"We don't know. We just got here." Hiro shrugged. "I'd be guessing not, though."

"Well, it doesn't matter as it is, seeing that we're being summoned to the chief's office, and Mr. Boss Man specifically mentioned that Shuichi was supposed to be absent. Not that he would be here on time as it is, but what are you gonna do?" K poked a button his computer as the two musicians looked at him as though he'd just gone crazy.

"How...?"

"The wonders of e-mail and multi-tasking." K interrupted the obvious question as he rose to his feet, poking another button in the process. "Come on. Wouldn't want him to think anything's wrong, right? That was the plan, correct?"

The three of them left the room quickly, two of them still slightly confused and the other one blissfully ignorant of the surprise he was about to get once he turned the corner for, lo and behold, there was the man with the sunglasses and an obsession with chips standing next to a trash can a few feet from the elevator. Where the trash can had come from was a mystery in and of itself seeing as it wasn't there on normal days, but K didn't really have time to question the mystery of the can at the moment. He was too busy wondering why the hell this random guy hadn't been grabbed by security or left of his own violation as of yet.

That and it looked like he was holding a bag of potato chips in a rather threatening manner. How one can manage that is something I personally don't know, but he was doing it somehow. I'm just going to write it off as a mysterious power and leave it at that.

"Uh... Who is that?" Suguru asked hesitantly. It's not like was getting many favorable answers in the questions department as of late. Okay, so he was getting no answers and being generally ignored, but that was normal. Why he was still asking question he knew no one would take seriously and/or everyone would obviously ignore was a mystery I can't even explain. Something about his naturally inquisitive nature perhaps.

Yeah, I got nothin'.

Continuing on, there was now a major wrench being thrown into K's own plans, whatever those may be. It's not like that man would tell _me _anything. Suffice to say that it's pretty important for him to be in Tohma's office sometime within the next century.

I was just asked by a prying sibling whether losing his job might have anything to do with it. To them I say, "Hell no! Who would ever DREAM of firing the perfect K-san? No one, that's who." In which she responded by bashing me upside the head for typing out the answer to her question and forcing her to read when I could have just said something.

See, even the supposedly omnipotent narrator doesn't know everything. So take that MeaniePants!

I don't think she knows what omnipotent means...

Woah! Tangent alert! I say we get back to the story then. Shall we?

"It's no one, absolutely no one." K muttered distractedly. Hiro and Suguru exchanged skeptical looks and decided to continue on to the elevator as though nothing were blocking their way. It was a pretty smart decision seeing as this newest strange addition into their pretty strange world really wasn't their problem. Whatever it was K could handle it. If he couldn't, well, let's just say that it must be awfully cold down there in hell right about now. "Fucking Mysterious Matrix Man."

Well a general title is often better than referring to him as 'the man'. It could be any man when you speak about him like that. And 'The Man' doesn't work either. You can't really put capitalization into speech. It just doesn't work that way.

K focused on Hiro and Suguru for just a few seconds, nothing more or less, and Mysterious Matrix Man (or MMM if you prefer to start reading it that way) was gone when he looked back. Completely and utterly gone, with no explanation or feasible means of getting out of the lobby unseen.

Oh my, what has our dear K-san gotten himself into this time?

Hiro and Suguru didn't know whether they should say something or just continue on their merry way. It wasn't every day that they saw random men standing next to random trash cans by an innocent bank of elevators at their workplace. It wasn't every day that they saw innocent elevators either. I mean, come on, elevators see more than their share of dirty things and in order to be guilty of a crime you have to actually be able to have a conscience, which elevators (being inanimate objects) do not have.

Though the question of the supposed innocence of the elevators is really beside the point, isn't it? Oh well, some other time then. This has the makings of a great debate.

So the two musicians, not willing to waste any more time, hurried past their stunned manager and pressed the nearest call button. A quiet ping announced the elevator's arrival and Hiro pushed while Suguru pulled in order to get their frozen manager into the car before the doors shut.

Somewhere between the sixth and seventh floors, K pulled out of his deep mental shock and launched right back into the day almost like he'd never left it. Don't you hate it when people can shake off mental trauma like that while you're stuck somewhere trying not to faint for an hour straight?

And while Hiro and Suguru would have like to call him on it, they had much bigger things to worry about than K and the problems that he would very likely be able to handle quite easily. Besides, to be perfectly honest, seeing strange and random things was a normal occurrence for the two and they would have been much more worried if the day had finished without giving off a very distinct What The Fuck vibe.

It just wouldn't be Gravitation without it.

They eventually managed to reach the top floor and were ushered out of the elevators by their suddenly extremely bubbly manager. K didn't even bother to knock on Tohma's office door, the inconsiderate bastard. Not that it never happened like that, because it did quite often, but it was still common courtesy to knock from time to time.

Tohma was waiting for the with his slightly creepy smile while trying to keep something firmly seated in his lap. Seeing as the majority of his lower body was beneath his desk, the musicians couldn't tell exactly what it was or what it had to do with anything, but they were quite sure that it was alive and probably biting if the grimace that appeared from time to time on Tohma's face was any indication.

"If the three of you wouldn't mind taking a seat, I have a favor I would like to ask you." Tohma said inclining his head in the direction of the three chairs in front of his desk. The thing in his lap gave a low growl as they sat down, but was otherwise silent. "Right then. My wife has been accepted into some study abroad program that she's been aching to go on for some time now and she would like someone to watch her pet for her while she is away seeing as I am rarely at home and tend to forget to feed the bloody thing when I am."

"Can't do it, Boss." K said quickly. "Got my son's dog over at my place for a while. Michael won't go anywhere without him and I've got the boy for the school part of this year."

"You have a dog?" Hiro asked. "Don't you live in an apartment where they don't allow animals?"

K shrugged. "I've never had a problem. Besides old Mörder is a good guard dog. German Shepard you know."

Tohma shook his head. "Fine, so K can't take it. I guess you two will have to do the job then."

"I don't see why not." Suguru answered. "What is it?"

Here Tohma's grin turned into a full-fledged evil smile. He raised his hands up from under the desk and a kitten's head popped up with a loud meow of protest for being held against it's will for so long. It turned it's golden eyes towards the group of people staring at it and leapt up on to desk where it then began to daintily lick one little gray paw.

"A kitten?" Suguru asked. "You can't be serious. I hate cats."

"I know, but I don't see a problem. Surely you have a large apartment. The animal is fine in confined spaces. It can stay in Hiro's room unless you aren't home and you never have to look at it for the whole duration of it's stay if you don't want to." Tohma turned his piercing gaze to Hiro. "That is correct, no?"

Hiro nodded. "That arrangement sounds fine to me. I have no problem with cats."

"But... But..." Suguru stuttered, cause Tohma's eyes to fall upon him once more. "Why can't Eiri do it? He is her brother after all. She barely knows us."

"Eiri just so happens to be allergic to cats." Tohma stated calmly as his eyes now began to follow the kitten's progress as it began to explore the papers on his desk. "Not to mention that he is a very busy man who wouldn't have time to take care of himself if others didn't force him to do it."

It was in this moment that the kitten chose to do what almost every feline animal is proficient in doing, it picked out the person most uncomfortable with it's presence and jumped down and curled up into a ball in said person's lap. The person in this case being Suguru.

"Aw. I think it likes you!"

"Shut up, K. You're not helping." Suguru grumbled while trying to ignore the purring ball of fur that had settled into his lap.

"What's it's name?" Hiro asked, completely and totally head over heels in love with the little ball of fluff within seconds of seeing it. What? The man likes kittens. Get over it.

"Mr. Horatio Fernando Mercutio Fluffs the Third. Or just Fluffs for short." Tohma answered.

"He's adorable." Hiro stated as he reached over in order to scratch the kitten's chin.

"It's a she, and you need to make sure that she stays inside at all times since she hasn't been fixed yet. If she gets pregnant it's on your head." Tohma added and stood to signal that the meeting was over. "I'll send over her bed, toys, litter box, and all the food we have for her right now. They should be at your place before you get home. I've got a kennel downstairs in the lobby, but she doesn't seem to like it all that much, so I wouldn't recommend putting her in there much unless you wish to go deaf."

Hiro and K stood up to leave but Suguru was too busy attempting to cringe away from the content kitten to do much more than become much more firmly attached to his seat. Hiro raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Want me to carry her?"

Suguru nodded weakly, nearly jumping out his chair when Fluffs turned her head to look him dead in the eye, almost as though she were asking 'What? You don't you like me? I'm cute, right? Well, _I_ think I'm cute.' Then he wondered if he was going crazy for thinking he heard a kitten speaking to him.

Hiro chuckled and lifted the offender from Suguru's lap gently. She mewed in surprise, but when she found this person to be much more affectionate than her earlier perch, she licked Hiro's face once and settled down into his arms, yawning before drifting off to sleep.

Finally free from his burden, Suguru leapt from his chair and practically ran from the room. Hiro shook his head and followed at a much slower pace, stroking the cat's head gently and looking perfectly content with life at the present moment.

"Well you managed to make one of them happy." K pointed out as he leaned back in his seat. "I would assume that's what you were going for, right?"

Tohma chuckled lightly. "You'll see soon enough, my friend. Everyone will see soon enough."

"You sure give a new meaning to the phrase 'There's never a free lunch.'"

"I try."


End file.
